After the Fall
by Mystrii
Summary: After the fall of the B.S.L., Samus must escape from the Galactic Federation which holds her responsible for its wreckage. She escapes onto an unknown planet where she finds a space pirate ship similar to the B.S.L. and the Bottle Ship. Inside, she is faced with new enemies as well as enemies of her past that threaten her life and mission.


**Part One**

Snow fell blissfully down to the ground. The wind barely carried it but a few inches from its intended descent, and it spiritedly danced in the air to some song that sang of happiness. This was however no happy time for Samus Aran, the bounty huntress who had just destroyed the Biologic Space Laboratories research station in orbit around the planet SR388. Her ship had barely escaped the corona of the flare caused by the explosion of the B.S.L. crashing into the planet below and burning up its atmosphere. By this time, Samus had traveled far in the galaxy by choosing a random vector to follow in hyper space. While there, she made her AI, Adam, upload a stripped down clone of himself to her suit. Though his abilities were severely limited, she could still make use of him. Samus warped out and slowed when Adam first detected a habitable planet. Water content and land mass were proportional with Zebes, so she decided to land, but in the most inhospitable section of the planet that she could find so as to quell any searching probes chances of finding her.

When she landed in the midst of the frozen continent that sat over the South Pole and witnessed the snow drifting lazily downward, she encountered a feeling that she had not had since her days first fighting Mother Brain: paranoia. She was paranoid not only due to the fact that she was somewhere about which she had no information, but she was also afraid that the Galactic Federation would discover her and disagree with her for her decision to destroy the B.S.L. She could try to reason with them, but they would still find ways to see her decision as unjust, and they would punish her for, what they considered, crimes against humanity. They would strip her of her mission to destroy her enemies, the space pirates.

All around her was snow and ice. She couldn't see for miles ahead. She felt as if something was watching her every move, as if this thing wanted to be sure she felt unwelcome. Samus could not shake the feeling that this thing was watching her. She could not discern any place that it could be hiding, and even with her AI, scanning all around her, she could not feel unshaken, and so she trekked through the snow, away from her ship, hoping to lose its trail. She made sure to mark the place where she had left it in case she needed it later, but for now it would sit unused.

"Disabling ice beam functionality," said her AI. "I doubt you will need it here." She hefted her arm cannon in front of her, aimed and ready to shoot at whatever came her way, and she pushed forward to journey into the unknown. The air seemed still. What breeze had swept the snow before was now gone. There was an icy frozen in place that shifted the atmosphere eerily. The temperature had risen only slightly now that she was out of the shadow of her gunship, but it was still not very warm at all. She had landed in a place unprotected by the ozone layer of the atmosphere, and her suit could not protect her from such extremes for long, despite the fact that she bore the varia and the gravity upgrades to her power suit, because she possessed metroid DNA and they were vulnerable to the cold.

Samus kept a close eye on her motion tracker, and Adam constantly relayed to her the status of her vitals and her surroundings. From the information that he provided, due to the lack of ozone filtering in the atmosphere, the air on this frozen continent contained harmful amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide. She had only a few hours of oxygen left before her suit had to begin the process of converting the carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen, but that function was no longer present in her power suit because it had been removed during a surgeryin order to protect her from an X parasite that had infected her while on the surface of SR388. It was to the point where she thought that traveling in the open like this was hopeless until Adam spoke.

"Samus," said he, "I am picking up anomalous amounts of oxygen originating a few paces South of here. I suggest you move there so we can harvest some." Samus turned southward and moved a few yards before Adam told her to stop as he began collecting oxygen to refill her reserves. She looked around as he replenished her air supply. This place seemed different. Here, Samus once again felt that feeling of dread. She looked down to the frozen ground. There was a small black spot no larger than the size of her thumb that she could have overlooked and not seen had the dread not startled her. She cocked her head in curiosity and bent down to the annoyance of Adam. She examined it, stood up, and aimed her cannon at the spot and fired. The snow melted where the shot hit, and a tunnel large enough to fit Samus' full height twice was revealed. A rush of air blew past her, and Adam informed her that this was where the oxygen was coming from. He was hesitant about allowing her to venture into the tunnel, but he eventually agreed to let her enter after evaluating that it would be best to move out of the extreme temperature and into higher levels of oxygen in hopes of keeping her alive longer.

Samus plunged into the darkness. Adam informed her that the temperature was rising to levels that her suit could protect her from. As she moved cautiously down, ducking under rocks and shimmying around bends, she lost the last of the light that her night visor could pick up. She switched on her thermal visor, but Adam argued against it. "It is far too cold to use," he said. "The thermals it would be able to pick up in these temperatures will turn out to be black and dark blue. The temperature just isn't high enough." Samus took his advice and switched on her echo visor. It was an amazing piece of technology that sent out waves of sound of a certain frequency and then created a three dimensional image using the frequencies relayed back to it. With it activated, Samus could make her way through the darkness even without light. "Also," Adam added, "do not under any circumstances use the flashlights in your helmet."

With that in mind she plunged deeper into the tunnel. It seemed like it would never end. "The wind is picking up down here," noted Adam. "We may be near a larger cave. I advise you to continue on, but keep an eye on your surroundings. There was no life above ground, but the conditions are slightly more ideal in these depths." Samus continued down the tunnel. The wind grew harder as she fought her way against it. Finally, Samus came to another hole that was in the floor. She crept up to it and looked down. Turning off her echo visor, she stared into a cave full of blue light. It was a glaringly deep hue that gave her dark flashbacks of a time past in a different place, though this blue was different than phazon which had once threatened her life. "This cave is unimaginably large. I approximate it to be at least 20 miles in length, though my scans cannot reach such much farther than that. It is more than likely larger," Adam informed her.

"What is that?" Samus asked him, pointing down to the bluish stuff.

"Hm? The blue substance?" he asked sounding distracted. A few seconds passed before he responded. "Analysis inconclusive. I need to be closer in order to classify it."

"Do you think it's safe?" she asked.

"If you mean, 'Is it similar to phazon?' then I cannot answer that either. I would not suggest landing in it. Your varia suit can protect you from less harmful things, but it would be foolish to plunge into an unknown substance. There is a place that doesn't seem to be covered by it below us. I would suggest attempting to land there." Samus looked for the spot Adam informed her of, but she could not find it. Adam placed a marker over it on her H.U.D. for her to see, and she finally saw just how small it truly was. She was far from it, and it was only large enough for her two feet, a patch in the midst of a sea of bioluminescent blue.

Samus took in a deep breath and lowered herself out of the hole. She was hanging from the ceiling of the cave by her left hand. She closed her eyes and let her grasp fall away. She opened them again, and as she fell she tucked herself into a ball and began rolling in the air. Sparks and plasma began to surround her, sizzling and crackling as she spun, and she began to propel toward the patch of open space. She was using her Screw Attack maneuver to stay afloat in the air and also to destroy anything that came to surround her; the plasma was for more than keeping her in the air.

After she landed in the small open space that was not covered by the blue substance, Adam chimed in. "Analysis is positive. The substance is not phazon, nor does it appear to be harmful. It exhibits characteristics of both flora and fungi, so I do not know how to classify it. I would not suggest wading in it for long if you can help it, but I do not think that it will harm you if it touches you." That was good enough for her. Feeling confident that she would not be harmed, Samus took a step into the blueness. The hazard bar on the far left of her H.U.D. shot up only a small amount. Her varia suit would be able to protect her from it. She began to trek through the blue plant. She once more arrived at the conclusion that something was watching her. It was different than before. Here, underground, she could feel thousands of eyes upon her. It was a threatening feeling that she could not shake away. She found herself looking around and checking the surroundings in the soft blue light despite the fact that her motion tracker would be able to pick up anything moving around her.

"Interesting," Adam spoke up. "After a more extensive scan of this unidentified substance, I have come to the conclusion that it contains a rather large amount of energy, comparatively more per ounce than phazon..." He paused before speaking more alerted, "Samus, I'm picking up moving targets outside the range of your motion tracker. I've boosted its range for you so that you can see them, too." Her motion tracker expanded to cover her entire H.U.D. Sure enough, red dots were scattered about in front her position, but they seemed far off. They did not appear to be moving toward her, nor did they appear to be moving much at all. "I suggest altering our course in order to avoid confrontation. We have no idea what creatures may be down here." Samus nodded her head in acknowledgement and was about to turn on her echo visor to search for a route that led out of the cave when she saw a blinking red light in the distance on a wall to her right. It was a soft red, so she had to squint her eyes in order to see it clearly.

"Adam, what am I looking at?" she asked.

Adam zoomed in on the light for her so that it filled her H.U.D. "It appears to be artificial. Likely it was put there to warn whoever installed it of something."

"But who would have one down here?" she asked.

"That, I do not know. It's possible that the Galactic Federation has a base on this planet, though that is not probable. These coordinates were never once mentioned in even the classified databases. Perhaps its origin is of another high race, but the only one known to be left is the Luminoth, and they are not confirmed to be living anywhere but Aether."

"Make a guess."

"You won't like it," he said with a cautionary tone.

"Just say it," she said, though she could almost tell what he was going to say.

Adam sighed in defeat. "Because this is unlikely to be of Galactic Federation origin, and it is equally unlikely to be of Luminoth origin, there are three scenarios. I will list them in order of ascending likelihood. This could be the technology of a new or newly advanced species, however the odds are not in favor of this outcome. It could be the remnants of one of the higher civilizations, though that scenario is unlikely because the type of technology used here is not recognizable in current databases as belonging to any of the known friendly civilizations. That leaves only one scenario: it is of space pirate origin." Samus gulped at the words. They had been in hiding for a long time. Had they rebuilt Mother Brain? Ridley? Had they grown in power and intellect? She had many questions. Though she would rather see them unanswered, she knew that she would be venturing into their stronghold in an attempt to thwart them. Though she no longer felt welcome with the Galactic Federation, their teachings of the atrocities of space pirates and her firsthand experiences dealing with them had led her to attempt to stop them whenever she could. She would not be able to hold herself back when the time came.

"What are you thinking?" Adam asked her. Samus did not reply, and Adam sighed. "At least allow me to assess the situation beforehand. I will not allow you to enter without any protection or knowledge of this base's layout. I need you to stay still. Give me a few seconds," he told her. Samus waited until he responded again. He was scanning the cave to get a basic layout of the room.

"Samus," he began. "I've got a basic idea of how this place is mapped. This is the main entrance, to a larger structure further inside that appears to be shaped like a ship. I am unsure of what it is made of, but I believe it is safe assume that the structure is the ship that this pirate horde flew in on. Anyway, this place is massive. There may be a station where you can upload me that may be compatible with your arm cannon on the outside of this ship. I suggest heading there and connecting so that I can bypass the security and provide you with more detailed information than sound waves can provide, given that there is such a station available."

On Samus' H.U.D., a crude three dimensional map was drawn. It showed whatever Adam was able to scan. The cavernous room that Samus was standing in was the first thing drawn. It narrowed down until it was a small tunnel. Beyond that was another large room that appeared to have a bridge of earth connecting where the tunnel ended to a large wall. The picture was blurred at this point, but it was clear enough that this was the ship. A red arrow was placed on the end of the bridge that ended by the ship. "This is where I need you to go. The path is fairly straightforward, but do not take it for granted. We have dealt with space pirates before. They could be hiding a trap anywhere, especially leading up to a ship this massive." Samus nodded her head and cautiously walked forward. The blinking red light was foreboding, but it was not enough to faze her. She thought she could hear footsteps pattering around her softened by the glowing substance. She frantically looked from side to side as she heard it. Sweat beaded on her brow.

She heard a sudden noise as she approached the tunnel. It was a loud shriek that when sounded made the ceiling crumble. Samus instinctively held her cannon forward and fired off several shots. The beams made contact with creatures called shriekbats that grew suicidal and exploded upon impact with whatever startled them. The crumbling sound grew louder and Samus saw larger and larger rocks fall from the ceiling. It was caving in on her. She frantically dodged the boulders that were falling, shooting her beam cannon at a few to keep them from crushing her. She dashed toward the entrance of the tunnel, hoping that she would make it before the entire cavern fell in on her. Rocks were falling in front of the entrance. She shot them aside with a few missiles and dove into the tunnel as the remainder of the cave fell in. She was closed to the outside now. There was no escape, only forward. She stared into the tunnel. Ice lined its surface. It was slick and difficult to move through, and the tunnel seemed to shrink in circumference as she went through it. The map that Adam had created for her did not seem like an accurate description of the tunnel's actual length. There seemed to be no end to it. Small creatures crawled over the ceiling, clinging to and creating small cracks in the ice. Samus disregarded them as they scuttled past her. Her visor was gathering ice crystals on its sides. Was it getting colder? Or had she only just noticed the biting temperature?

She was not allowed to think of the temperature for long. Samus felt the ground rumbling around her. She stopped in her tracks, watching and waiting for something to happen. Out of the ground in front of her, crashing through the ice covered tunnel, the long writhing body of a giant worm burst forth and showered Samus with rock and ice. She was nearly hit by it, but because she had stopped moving she was able to dodge it. Once its tail end had disappeared she dashed down the narrowing tunnel. "Ice and diffusion missile functionality disabled," Adam said mechanically. Samus breathed a sigh of relief and armed her missile launcher. When the walls began to rumble violently again, Samus jumped out of the way. The worm burst out of the ground and she pummeled it with super missiles. The worm exploded into millions of pieces, the wet insides instantly crystallizing in the extreme cold.

"Thanks for that," she said to Adam.

"It was timely, I must admit," Adam gloated. "The ship should be directly in front of us." Samus stared forward. It was once again dark. The blue substance was not present here, and so there was nothing emitting light to brighten the depths of the cave. Samus brought her hand up to the side of her head and switched on her echo visor. A few milliseconds later, the place lit up with white shapes, outlines of the walls, the bridge, a few animals who flew in the darkness and the cold. Ice hung from the ceiling and the ship loomed over her. She approached the side of the ship and placed her hand upon its surface. It was smooth and made a soft clinking noise when her suit made contact with it. Samus looked to the left and the right on the ship for any protrusion where she could upload Adam to the ship's computer, but she could not see any such place.

"Where's this upload station?" she asked.

A few seconds passed before Adam responded. "I do not detect one using your echo visor's software." Once again, Samus' H.U.D. became filled by a three dimensional map. A large, curved surface stood in front of her position on the map. Usually smaller details could be deciphered using echolocation at such short distances, but there was nothing protruding from the ship nor were there any depressions in its surface. "We will have to find another station or search for an alternate entrance—"

Samus turned on the lights of her visor. Adam began to badger her for it, but she ignored his constant pleas for her to shut them off. She looked at the door leading into the ship. She recognized its type. She had seen others like it before. The door opened by sliding upward. Samus remembered how the doors worked. They could only be opened from the inside so as to keep out intruders. In order to get into be ship, one had to be equipped with a beam that could penetrate walls seamlessly by traveling around the atoms within a substance. Samus was luckily equipped with one such weapon, the wave beam. She aimed and shot through the door at the spot where the switch should have been, but it did not budge. She looked puzzled at it when she heard the sound of flapping wings.

She froze and listened. The sound grew louder and another sound joined it, screechy as if something was charging to fire. She ducked and rolled to the side in time to dodge a massive round of plasma. She turned toward the origin of the bolt, and floating in front of her was a robotic organism. It was a steel colored robot that appeared to be modeled after her old enemy, Ridley. It had two red lights where Ridley's eyes would have been and two rows of spikes lining its spine which were glowing a soft blue like the plant Samus had seen in the previous cave. The robotic creature had two wings, metal structures spread out with thin membranes strong enough to catch the wind beneath them. The thing had two claws with three razor sharp talons each and two feet with three talons in the front and a smaller one behind. Its tail was long and had a large spike at the end. It appeared to be alive and breathing.

"I told you not to turn on your lights," Adam said with condescension. Samus grunted and aimed her beam cannon and fired at the mock Ridley. It spread its wings out to their fullest length and flapped upwards quickly, barely dodging the beam. It opened its mouth and the same screechy noise sounded that she had heard before, but this time she saw the inside of its mouth glowing white. Samus' eyes widened and she dove off the bridge and out of the way. The white-hot bullet of plasma was shot at a portion of the bridge, and it collapsed where it was hit, exploding and vaporizing some of the rock that it made contact with. Samus looked back up at the robotic creature and saw another white flare charging. She rolled to her right in time for the charge to miss her again. The creature roared in anger. Samus stood up and armed her missile launcher. She fired at the flying creature as it began to charge for another blast. Two missiles hit it before it could fire, and the creature fell from the air. Samus heard it clatter as it hit the bridge. She stood up, still holding her arm cannon in front of her.

Ice crystals floated in the air as if suspended by some unseen force. Some of them fell, but most appeared to be waiting. She climbed around to the end of the bridge. It was unstable now that a part of it had collapsed, but she judged it could hold her without falling. She approached the mock Ridley, its carcass sparking and faintly glowing. She stopped in front of it, waiting. The creature's eyes flared red and it gave out a shriek, but Samus fired another round of missiles into it. The lights of its eyes stopped glowing. Samus lowered her arm cannon after a few seconds, staring at the machine.

"Samus, turn on your thermal visor. I am detecting an unusual amount of heat," Adam commanded. Samus reached up and flipped on her thermal visor. She looked all around her but saw nothing. When she looked down at the creature, its body was glowing with warm colors, but there was one part burning a bright white. She reached down for it, pushing a few mechanical parts aside. She grabbed onto something cylindrical and stood up. She turned on her lights and switched back to her normal visor. She was holding the blaster that the creature was using to fire the shots at her.

"Adam," she began to ask. "Is this compatible with my suit?"

"It may be. It appears to be Chozo in design, but it was augmented by the pirates. However, its origin points to it being compatible with your power suit, even as stripped as it is now," he said referring to her power suit augmentations that had undergone during her surgery to remove the X. Samus held the rod over her arm cannon. A few lights on her arm blinked yellow and gold and a latch opened up. She could feel the cold air rolling in on her exposed arm, but it was not long before it was replaced by warmth as she inserted the rod parallel with her arm. She gently placed it onto a holster inside the cannon and it closed tightly, sealing the contents inside. She held up her arm cannon and pressed a button inside with her arm. The cannon elongated and parts began to glow white. She fired at the door, the end of the cannon releasing an orb of white-hot plasma, and the shot almost knocked her over as it left her arm. The white bullet of plasma impacted the door and it opened, a large hole gaping in the ship's side. Samus stared into the ship. Light poured into the darkness around it from its inside. She smiled and ran toward it, pressing the button to return to her normal arm cannon length again. She was happy that she had a new weapon in her arsenal. She had not received a weapon like that since her days on Zebes.

Samus approached the ship cautiously, her arm cannon held firmly in front of her. She stepped through the hole into the ship. Her motion tracker lit up with red dots, most of them merely walking about the ship oblivious to her. Her boots rang against the metal of the floor, and her vision was filled with blue light. She asked Adam to scan the ship and search for a place to link up with its computer. The AI did his work and drew another three dimensional map over her H.U.D. for her to see the several hallways and corridors and rooms that lined the ship up to two levels. His scans could reach no more than that. Samus' position was shown on the second level just above the bottom level of the ship. "There should be an upload station here," he said marking the room with a red arrow. "Make your way there and I will link up with this station and show you how to destroy it." Samus nodded and began walking down the hallways. She held her arm cannon in front of her, keeping a close eye on her motion tracker. She had meandered through three corridors before she spotted any threatening movement on the tracker. She slid into a nearby room and listened for the pirates to march by, but she did not hear a thing. Her motion tracker was still showing motion, but there did not appear to be any.

Samus stepped out from her hallway and saw nothing, but as soon as she stepped out, beams began flying toward her. The pirates were using a mock-invisibility suit function. She ducked and turned to run when more shots fired from in front of her. She was trapped. She made a desperate move and morphed into a ball. She laid a power bomb and tried to dodge the shots as best as she could until the bomb exploded. Whatever life was in the hallway where the power bomb went off was instantly vaporized. Samus breathed a sigh of relief. She morphed back to herself continued toward the upload station, now ready to shoot at whatever fell in her field of vision. She rounded corners, scoped out pathways, and shot at some pirates who were caught by surprise by the bounty hunter in her rush.

When she approached the room, the door was closed and locked with the same seal as the entrance of the ship had. "This is the room," Adam informed her. Samus nodded silently and pressed the button inside her arm cannon. It elongated and glowed white again, and she prepared to charge the deadly white-hot plasma bolts. She aimed at the door and stepped back. Samus pulled on the trigger and released her grip. An orb shone in the corridor, illuminating it with a heavenly white light to contrast the sickly bluish glow. The door in front of her unlocked and opened, revealing a dark room illuminated solely by the ambient glow of thousands of twinkling lights. There was a mist that clung to the coldness in the room. There were wires lining the floor and walls, small modules and lights protruding here and there that blinked with curiosity. The room was tall and seemed to go on forever upward, the lights on the walls above resembling the brilliance stars in all their wonder.

She stood marveled for a moment, her mind racing around the room, until she saw the central pedestal in the midst of all the ambient light. She walked in front of the pedestal. Buttons and dials and screens mapped its surface. Two long rods that bent away from her were protruded upward on the right and left of the pedestal where a hologram could be displayed. She was used to working with space pirate mechanics, so she punched a few buttons and a chute rose up from the ground to the right of the pedestal.

Samus thrust her arm cannon into the chute and watched as it lit up. The room grew brighter revealing crystals of ice in the air as if they were floating without gravity.

"Samus," Adam said victoriously. "I have integrated myself with the computer, and I am attempting to connect with your gunship. I'm surprised that this place is so lightly guarded. There is a vast amount of information here! The plans, the knowledge, the wonder, it's all spectacular! I could—"

"Adam, I need you to focus on our objective," Samus told him, annoyed.

"Pardon?" Adam asked with anger. "Oh, right. Our mission is to destroy this place." He sounded suddenly saddened, a longing hinged to his electronic voice. "The boiler room is within one of the bottom floors of this ship towards its rear. If you can get there, you can overheat the boilers and this ship will explode. There is a slight problem, however..."

"What?" Samus sighed.

"There are some doors that have been prevented from being opened by special locks. From what I can tell, these locks require that certain weapons make contact in order to break them, similar to the locks you encountered on Zebes. I have updated your map to include these doors as well as to show the entirety of this ship's innards. It seems that the weapon you obtained from the robotic life form outside the ship is able to open one of these locks. We will call this weapon the plasma bolt. I have colored the locks that the plasma bolt can break with white. The locks you cannot break yet are grey. All the rest are either blue, red, or green." Samus' H.U.D. filled with the map, more heavily detailed than before. The ship was massive. It was built like a city. She speculated that it was a high class military vessel created during an experiment to repel the most powerful of attacks. The ship was many miles long. It was by far the largest vessel Samus had ever seen. She wondered at how the pirates had been able to create such a massive piece of machinery.

"I do not know where to find these weapons, however I think that one can be found here, and another here," two red arrows blinked at her in different locations on the map. "Somewhere on the tenth floor and also on the twelfth floor are weapons, keys to breaking some of the locks. They are probably heavily guarded, so I would use extreme caution."

"How many different weapons will I need to get to break into the boiler room?" Samus questioned.

"From what I can tell, three," he answered. "You already have one, so there are only two left that you need." Samus' H.U.D. was cleared of the three dimensional map of the station. It shrunk to the upper right corner and was truncated to show her position and a few rooms directly around her. She held up her arm cannon and began to exit the room. A red arrow circled its way around the perimeter of her H.U.D. to show her the way. She checked her vitals, her energy tanks, her beam cannon, and she left the ambient room and entered the ghastly bluish reality that lay beyond. She checked where the red pointer was guiding her, and turned in the nearest direction that she could move. It was pointing South of Southeast of her position, but the only way she could move was South. So she began in that direction, down the corridors. She twisted and turned. A couple times she encountered turrets that descended from the ceiling to hail her with plasma, but her suit absorbed much of the damage that she could not dodge, so she was able to defeat them with little effort. Once or twice she was cut off by a few pirates of different rank, and occasionally it was a floating white, orb-shaped robot that seemed to be stolen Luminoth or Chozo technology that would halt her procession, but she would always move on unscathed and more confident that her mission would be a success.

But she had long ago learned not to rely on the success of the mission as a whole. She needed to focus on one dimension of the mission at a time. She quickly rounded a corner and entered the vicinity the zone where there one of the weapons was supposed to be. After climbing many floors, she finally found the area. It was a rather small conglomeration of rooms that surrounded a larger dome structure that stuck out the side of the ship. From her AI, Samus was told that the large dome contained a tropical biome, and that it was created to house some of the exotic creatures that were to be used for bioweapon research. Samus rolled her eyes. Of course the pirates would put one of their weapons somewhere inside this complex.

She walked up to a metallic door. It was sealed shut, and the glass that would have allowed her to look in was foggy. To the side of the door were a small keypad, a handprint scanner, and another upload station like the one in the ambient room. She walked up to the station and thrust her arm cannon into it. She felt a tingling sensation as Adam connected with the system.

"This sector is rather large," said Adam. "I believe that it is five stories high, from here to the top floor. It appears to be a tropical bioweapon research station. Be careful inside, Samus. There are some dangerous creatures in there. Do not be fazed by the cold on the outside. Inside this place, the temperature is well regulated, and some of the most dangerous creatures we know of could live there, including metroids. I will reactivate your diffusion and ice missiles as well as your ice beam. You may need those." With that the door slid opened, hissing out steam. There was a small chamber inside with another door on the other side. Samus stepped in and the door behind her slid close. She heard the steam hissing as the temperature was rapidly raised. "I believe that the weapon will be here," said Adam, referring to the sector. "When you are in, we will not be able to exit through this passage, so you will have to take the exit on the fifteenth floor of the ship, but for now, we must think of the weapon. Any objections, lady?" Samus did not answer this time, though she did smile. Hearing the familiar phrase once said by the real Adam cheered her up.

The door in front of her hissed open and a rush of vibrant greens and yellows struck her eyes and all seemed to blend into one. Gone was the sickly blue from before, only to be replaced by another color just as sickly, but in a different way. She stepped out into the tropical world and the door behind her closed, sealing her in. The sounds of animals did not frighten her. She had been through this time and time before. She tried to remember back to a time when she was truly frightened, back to a time when all she could remember was her family. It was pleasant, so long ago and on a different world, a peaceful world. She closed her eyes and took a step out of that world and into a newer one, one that would have destroyed her back then.


End file.
